Camping with the Gooch

Some of the best times I have had, have been hanging out and camping with my brother Gooch (or Greg as our mom calls him). From the boy scout days, to wild weekends in the desert as teens, to beach trips in Baja, and now I get to share him while camping with my family.
  Fathers-day weekend we headed up the coast to Manchester beach. Always a beautiful drive, the northern California coast along Highway 1, winds in and out of grassy hills, wildflowers, coastal pines, and redwoods. We found ourselves at a KOA of all places. Not a bad place at all. It was windy and cool as is the norm for the north coast this time of year. We some how managed to cram 3 adults, 2 teens, a toddler and a little dog in the motor home, but only for the drive. Ian and Aden had to pitch a tent next to the RV (heehee).
  I would like nothing more than to find a a nice little secluded place with very few campers nearby, but I got to tell you, KOA's are great for families. They had a swimming pool, hot tub, game room, store, showers, even wine tasting, an  ice cream social and Karaoke. Yeah, I couldn't resist the karaoke at the KOA. Nothing like a little Bon Jovi to get the camping moms worked up. Gooch and I made some friends, and introduced Melanie to them. Next thing you know, our campsite was party central for 2 more adults, and 4 more kids. Melly was a little over

  stimulated from all the adult conversation, that she started throwing her sandals at people and trying to punch our new found friend in the face, all the while laughing hysterically...yea, she doesn't get out much.
  Apollo loves a good party and was more than happy to stay up until 1 a.m. with us.
  Okay, it was a little windy and cold, but amazingly pretty. One thing many people do not realize about the northern California Coast, is that there is so few people and a lot of open space, probably because it tends to be chilly there. You only need to head inland and the scenery and the temperature change rapidly. Literally a mile inland and you  enter the beautiful coastal redwoods. For myself, few things are more inspiring than the redwoods of California. The forests are so lush and green and the air is filled the wonderful smell of redwoods and earth. Its hard to describe, but if you have been to the redwoods, you know what I am talking about.

   The following weekend, we headed to Lawson's Landing at Dillon's Beach. This place is bizarre; part trailer park, part campground, part fisherman's paradise. All and all a unique and cool place. A very low tide early in the morning, brought out a large amount of clam diggers; the majority of them asian. What you have to love about the asian people, is their amazing work ethic and the fact that they don't let anything go to waste. Am I stereotyping? Maybe, but the deal is, I am always impressed with them as a people. They showed up early, clammed harder than us honkeys, and kept everything. Us white folk tend to kick aside anything that is to small, broken or we don't recognize, but these people eat everything they take, there is little, if any, waste.  By the way, the type of clams we were digging are called horse necks or geoducks (gooey ducks). They are ugly, phallic looking things. Of course once we found out from our new asian friends that the clams can be eaten raw, Aden thought he should taste one. I am not going to even comment on this photo beyond that. :-0 . To add to our clam feast, we even collected some live crab. Mel kept us well fed with her fabulous dutch oven cooking skills. I did not know (and neither did she) that you can cook so many different things with a dutch oven; very impressive Melly.  Gooch always likes to go all out on any adventure.

Between Gooch and Melly, we could have kept half the campground well fed for the 2 nights we were there. Gooch also managed to keep Ian and Aden occupied with clamming and fishing and showed an unusual amount of patience listening to Ian's endless fishing stories, and gun stories, and stories about blowing things up, and stories about how cool it would be to catch a fish, stuff it with C-4 explosives throw it back in the water, and shoot it with a gun right when a shark ate it, and watch the shark blow up.... I hope Gooch comes back and visits after that.


What a satisfying weekend and an awesome end to a two week visit from the Gooch. Apollo had a great time as well. He loves his Uncle Gooch. It was so sweet to hear him every night saying "Good night, Gooch". We even managed to give the little guy a much needed bath in the motor home sink. Apparently, using the dish scrubby is the best way clean yourself when you are a toddler. He was using the scrubby to wash his armpits all the while giggling and saying, "tickle,tickle".
 Thanks Gooch! We miss you already! Come back in the fall and we will harvest some mussels and make some wine! Blue skies until then.